Cardinals, Bloom face big trade decisions as demand grows for Donovan
Monday’s group conversation with Chaim Bloom in the St. Louis Cardinals’ suite at baseball’s winter meetings featured a broad discussion of the various paths and permutations that might await the team in the trade market in the coming days, weeks, and months.
On Tuesday, moving from television to television throughout the endless corridors of the Hilton Signia and attached Waldorf Astoria, Bloom acknowledged on MLB Network that infielder Brendan Donovan has drawn significant interest from other teams.
“That’s already out there,” he acknowledged with a hint of sheepishness, “and that is the case.”
With Donovan under team control for just two more seasons and the Cardinals outside a competitive window overlapping with that control, multiple factors are pushing the team’s lone 2025 All-Star toward the trade market.
Combined with an ongoing desire from both parties to move on from Nolan Arenado and open questions about the long-term fit of Nolan Gorman, one of the least clear paths for Bloom and his front office to navigate is the identity of next season’s primary third baseman.
Options remain. Bloom stopped short of closing the door on all external possibilities—“I would never want to rule anything out”—but he was clear he expects the majority of starts at the position to come from players already within the organization.
Gorman, with a power-hitting ability that surpasses perhaps all other Cardinals under contract, is a prime consideration, should he not be traded. Thomas Saggese, who posted a .641 OPS in half a season of duty in 2025, is also in the mix.
So, too, is JJ Wetherholt, the team’s top prospect, who is being given every opportunity to earn a spot on the big league roster coming out of spring training. Indeed, barring injury or an unexpected dip in performance, it would be something of a surprise if Wetherholt did not take the field at Busch Stadium on opening day.
“Certainly wouldn’t put any limitations on him, as it relates to opening day or thereafter,” Bloom said. “That’s all in the future for him. I don’t think it makes sense, and frankly I don’t think it’s really fair to anybody else just to hand JJ anything, and I think he knows that. I don’t think he would expect anything different.”
Whether Wetherholt plays at second or third base—with Masyn Winn the unquestioned incumbent at shortstop—will depend on other variables. Bloom has remained consistent in his stance that the Cardinals will not release Arenado, leaving him at third if they are unable to complete a trade for the second straight winter. If that is the case, a move involving Gorman could be necessary; some in the organization were frustrated by his fitness and mobility in 2025 as he struggled to utilize his prodigious power.
In any case, demand for Donovan appears to be the highest among Cardinals players the club may realistically consider trading—a sizable group that includes seemingly everyone who has reached at least his second year of salary arbitration.
“With what we’re trying to accomplish as an organization,” Bloom explained, “the possibility that for him, or any number of players, there could be something out there that really pushes us toward those goals, means we have to listen.
“[Donovan] is both the type of player and the type of person that we want more of in this organization. It’s not a surprise to me that other clubs see the value that he has.”
Completing a deal in the coming days could give the Cardinals momentum on their offseason goals and build on last month’s trade of Sonny Gray to the Boston Red Sox. Bloom was reluctant to put a timeline on any of the deals in the works, but the team’s aggressive posture suggests they are driving the market more than in recent years, rather than reacting to moves made by other clubs.
“What makes trades come together is that teams have different things they’re trying to accomplish at different times,” he said. “They see players differently…for him, for anybody, there might be something where we can push ourselves toward that goal of really building up a long-term core that we have to listen.”
As Bloom fielded questions from reporters, he kept an eye on both his phone and the door to the team’s working hotel room, aware he could be pulled away if the Cardinals landed a favorable result in the MLB draft lottery. Instead, the club fell from its default draft slot at eighth overall all the way down to 13th.
That result arguably balances last year’s climb up to fifth overall, which allowed the Cardinals to select top pitching prospect Liam Doyle after a winning 2024 season. More years of draft-lottery eligibility are likely in the immediate future, but the hope is that making the right trades will restore winning baseball to St. Louis in time to prevent lottery night from becoming an annual tradition.
This story was originally published December 10, 2025 at 4:30 AM.
